Owen Canfield: New Torrington mayor expects beautiful Christmas Eve

By
Owen Canfield, Register Citizen

Saturday, December 21, 2013

It was pretty early, around 8:30 a.m. Friday morning, when I called the mayor’s office in Torrington and frankly, I didn’t expect to find her in. Mayors work long days that often stretch into long nights but I expected just-elected Elinor Carbone to start her day a little later.

I should have known better. She is a worker and those who have followed her career in public office know she’s always been that way.

She said, “Maurette (Wall) and Tim (Waldron) always get to the office early (8 o’clock) so I feel that I should too.” Though she didn’t say it, there is also the matter of getting certain busy work done in the less hectic hours of the early morning.

The third female mayor to serve Torrington, sworn in earlier this month, will be experiencing her first Christmas as the city’s top official. I asked her how she planned to spend it.

She’ll work Monday and half a day Tuesday, she said, and then enjoy the holiday with her family. (Well, that’s the plan, anyway. A person in her position never knows when the phone will ring and a sudden crisis will demand the mayor’s attention. It’s part of the bargain.)

“The whole family will be here,” Carbone said. “They’re all coming home.” She is not only a new mayor, she’s a new Grandma, too. “Our son Nick and wife Sara will be here from Yorktown Heights, New York, with their practically brand new baby son, Jackson. He’s five weeks old.

“Also son Matthew will be flying in from San Diego. He is a Columbia graduate and a board certified behaviorist. And Marcus, our youngest, a student at Central Connecticut, will of course be with us.

“On Christmas Eve we’ll have many cousins and other relatives for our annual dinner which we call our Italian ‘fish dinner, but it’s a lot more than that. Gerry prepares the whole thing.” Gerry is the mayor’s husband who, for 25 years, was head coach of the Torrington High School baseball team. He is a special education teacher at THS.

“I’m one of those incredibly fortunate women whose husband loves to cook,” said the mayor.

It was enjoyable to speak to Carbone about a subject unrelated to politics or city business. I have good feelings about this mayor. I couldn’t help but stray into the realm of politics, just for a moment or two. I loved the answer that came back when I asked Carbone what prompted her to run for mayor. She said simply,

“I believe in Torrington.”

Merry Christmas

I’m not happy with the way non-believers in the origins of Christmas denigrate the holiday’s celebrations and its traditions. I want to stand on my rooftop and yell, “Leave us alone, busybodies, and get a real cause to fight for.”

I’m with the huge majority that has experienced the real meaning and the joy of it. Blocking out Christ and all Christianity, so that we who believe are not allowed to say Merry Christmas in schools or anywhere in public because it somehow offends the tender ears of two percent or less of the population is absurd. I’d like to have some of these objectors follow me around some Christmas Eve and Day. They couldn’t do it without feeling the wonder of it.

It all started with Christ’s birth and it all fits together and has for over 2,000 years. So I say Merry Christmas to all, including the killjoys who erected the “Who Needs Christ?” sign in Times Square. Especially them. They need a merry Christmas more than any of us.